Okay so onto the Banthat Mountains. This range is supposedly very good for tapir, by the way.
Phrai Wan WF is a tall one but sloped. You can walk up the rockface quite a way to see the small ant people below.
This one is another level further up the stream.
Smart bug in his twig house.
I decided to go around to the Trang side and attempt the hike from there, which I had read was an easier walk. There are a few write-ups online mostly in Thai and they mention the Phatthalung walk requiring one night's camp before you reach the summit, whereas the Trang side can be summited in a day.
So fast forward a few days, around at the Trang side, Nhan Sataw WF... There is no tourist infrastructure here; no ranger station or entrance fee. I slept at the bottom of the waterfall in a sleeping bag because I wanted to make an early start. No tent or hammock - there weren't any mosquitos at all and none on the mountain either. This trek has leeches in the rainy season, but there weren't any of those in April. I thought this trek would be tougher than it actually was, it's not that steep. Moderate-hard difficulty because it takes quite a while; maybe 4-5 hours up for the average recreational hiker. The terrain is fairly forgiving with only a few technical sections mostly nearer the top. Most people are doing it as a 2 day/1 night trek but it's possible to up and down it in a day as long as you start early. I started at 6.45am and was down by 1.15pm and that includes a bit of time wasting at the start to find the trail and an hour at the top for admiring the view and snacking. But I was not carrying any camping equipment and I walk quite fast. I did carry water but there is no need to at all, there are frequent water sources almost right up to the summit - you are basically following the river. The water is clear. I carried too much food, expecting a tougher trek. A couple of mangos, some sweets and a bag of popcorn came back down with me.
I did this trek without a GPS file to guide me, so that gives you an indication of how clear the trail was, but there are 2 sections where you could potentially go wrong (if you didn't have the GPS file). Firstly right at the start you should not follow the river as I did but where the waterfall sign is (in Thai script 50 metres before the waterfall) you should take the trail on the other side of the road which looks to be leading away from the river. There will be motorbike tracks on this trail and you will head through orchards and rubber tree farms for about 2-3km. It is possible to drive a scooter up here to save some time, the local farmers get up here on normal Honda Waves, not dirt bikes. This is their parking area from where it is not possible to drive any further.
This section has a few side trails but I just used my intuition and stayed on the well-travelled trail and on the odd occasion that the trail split into 2 well-travelled paths I took the one that stayed closest to the river. Then you enter the jungle and you won't emerge from the jungle until about 200m before the first peak at the summit. So about 6-7km in the jungle. The second difficult bit is about 1-2km before the top, there are a few times the trail splits and later rejoins so it becomes less clear as 50% of people are going one way and 50% the other. Also there are a few camps off the main trail which could confuse you. There are a couple of times when you are crossing dry river beds and so you are walking across stones and boulders so there is no trail of crushed leaves and compressed dirt to follow. Just take a few seconds to look around and the trail appears.
Edit 2022: I've deleted my GPX tracks because they were missing a section. This entire trek from Phattalung side to Trang side is available as a GPX file split into 3 days on Wikiloc,
Day 1:
www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/ecchdydday1-69155782
Day 2:
www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/ecchdydday2-69155769
Day 3:
www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/ecchdydday3-69155797
I've found Wikiloc wants me to pay for a subscription to download files when I use a phone but not when I access the site on a laptop/desktop. The user's GPS device is a bit jumpy so when they aren't moving their location is bouncing around resulting in much longer distances than the reality. But the trails can still be easily followed.